The restaurant at Astor's swanky St. Regis Hotel, c. 1905 |
"God! The restaurants!
New York has become the
Florence of the Sixteenth Century.
Genius on
every corner."
-Six Degrees of Separation
"No city in the world is better supplied with restaurants and eating-houses of every kind than New York." This observation in the 1896 edition of Rand McNally and Co's Handy Guide to New York City, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Other Suburbs is true today. The city's reputation as a food lover's paradise is well earned. From street food to fine dining, the available fare reflects the very city itself in its diversity and energy.